F5 - transcribe on your Mac!

02.09.2010

f5 is the Mac version of f4, our standard program for scientific transcription. f5 is a program which supports the transcription progress, the progress of manually writing down interview situations from video or audio files. It reads audio files and video files, and considerably alleviates the transcription of interviews. Your work is alleviated, because it slows down the playback speed without changing the pitch. You can control the playback with a footswitch or shortcuts. Whenever you pause the playback, f5 automatically rewinds it. An innovative function of f5 is that it synchronises your text with your current media file by adding a cue point to every paragraph. This allows you to directly jump to the passage you want to replay.

The name "f5" can also be seen of a reminder of the program's most important hotkey. The key F5 controls the most important functions, namely starting and pausing the playback (Note: You have to enable the F-keys in your system configuration). If you want to use the functionality of the F5 key in a quicker and more comfortable way, you can also use our USB-Footswitch f-pro or USB-Footswitch office. Additionally, you can save time with the individual text fragments available to f5 users.

              

Transcription kit "science"                   Transcription kit "office"

                   

System requirements: f5 is written in Cocoa and requires Mac OS X 10.5+

 

First steps with f5

1. Download f5 and unpack the files into the folder "Programs."

2. Start f5. Now, you can open any audio or video file with drag & drop. Simply drag the file to the (opened) upper left program window and drop it. Alternatively, you can also open a file by selecting it with the help of the menu. f5 can read the same file formats as QuickTime, such as MP3, WAV, AIFF and MOV. Furthermore, you can extend the range of compatible file formats by installing free plugins like Perian and Flip4Mac. Plugins allow the use of other file formats such as WMA, AVI, MPG, FLV, DivX, and more. If you encounter a file with a format which is not supported by f5, you can simply convert it into a MP3 file with All2mp3.

3. If you want to use the the key F5 for starting, pausing and rewinding, you have to enable the F-keys in your system configuration. Open the system configuration and select "Keyboard." You can now check the corresponding box. A quicker and more comfortable way is to use our USB-Footswitch f-pro or USB-Footswitch office, which can save up to 30% of your time.

4. You can type the text using f5. Texts can be saved as RTF, DOC, DOCX, or XML files.

 

Features - What can you do with f5?

Keyboard controlled operating and footswitch controlled operating

You can control the most important functions, namely starting, pausing, and rewinding, with the key F5. The hotkey's properties can be changed at any time. If you want to use the F-keys, you have to enable them in your system configuration. You can use the command keys left and right to fast-forward or rewind the playback. Using a footswitch is easier and more comfortable, though. You can choose a classic footswitch with three buttons, or a yellow footswitch with one button. You can keep on typing with your hands, while your feet control the playback. In this way, you can accelerate your progress and save up to 30% of your time.

Searching and Replacing

You can activate this function with CTRL+F. You can search for terms and let f5 automatically replace them. This function can, for example, be used to secure a person's anonymity in a text.

Rewind Interval

The rewind interval is an essential feature of f5, and guarantees a fluent transcription progress when stopping the playback. When resuming the playback you can hear the previous words again and you will stay in a constant flow of typing. You may adjust the length of the rewind interval to your personal needs by using the slide control.

Cue Points - Manually or Automatically

Cue points are an important tool of orientation within a transcript, because they enable you to check back with your original source by simply clicking on them. Cue points are set automatically after each paragraph and you can click at them in f5. The transcript including the cue point can be imported by applications such as MAXQDA. Clicking on a cue point will then automatically initiate the playback of the corresponding audio track.

Autotext feature

You can create user-defined text fragments and bind them to a hotkey. The text fragment can automatically be added to your text by pressing a hotkey followed by space.

Playback Speed

You can adjust the playback speed with the slide control. You might prefer a slower playback for the transcription process and an accelerated speed for proofreading. Changing the speed will not effect the pitch of the sound data, however. This guarantees a more comfortable transcription process.

Printing

Texts written in f5 can be printed or saved as PDF files. Additionally, you can choose if you want to display paragraph numbers or not.

Exporting

You can save transcripts as RTF, DOC, DOCX, TXT or XML files.

Backups

f5 will automatically perform a backup of your transcript every ten minutes. This feature protects your work from unpleasant surprises. The interval and the destination folder of your automatically saved files can be changed at any time.

Also New:

    * Integrated and scalable video-picture
    * Undo-function
    * Integrated online update

starting from Mac OSX10.5+ 
Size: 1 MB

 

Overall, we invest a five-digit number in our F-software. Furthermore, we intend to offer our software at no charges. Hence, we have set up a possibility to support us. If you would like to do so, you can support us by donating 10 Euros. Paypal account: info@dresing-pehl.de